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Clannad~After Story Rant & Review

Hey guys!! This is probably way overdue but I finally finished Clannad after story. Took me a while too, I watched, I paused, I re-watched Clannad and then I finished it.

Normally you don’t see the character’s lives after high school after the anime finishes. You assume that they live happily ever right? Totally normal considering that we don’t even really want to see the harsh difficulties of the real world since many of us watched anime to GET AWAY from the normal world of reason and non-neko ssocieties. However, Clannad illustrates a very realistic and believable story after the happly ever after, staying true to characters development and relatability all the while maintaining an dreamlike aura and fairytale landscape in the background.

Rating: 3.5-4 happy clouds (and many mixed feelings) —

BEWARE SPOILERS- SERIOUSLY IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED CLANNAD AFTER STORY GO DO SO RIGHT NOW

Soooooooo…….

Everyone tells me that everyone dies in Clannad. Okay, there are definitely sad and tragic points to the show and there may be different circumstances in the game, however, the anime ends fairly well. All loose ends are tied and much like the visual novels, we’re shown two endings to two routes that stem from Ushio’s birth and only one of them being the true end in the anime. Since these first route starts out of the blue and the viewers are not informed of what is actually happening, we really believe- for a time- that Nagisa DIES! And holy hell, the stuff that happens following her death is not very pretty and at one point you rally want to smack Key for writing their main character in such devastating circumstances. It’s even implied that Ushio dies…

Now, a large chunk of the middle series follows the events of this route and its not until the second last episode that the little girl from the world of lights, and her robot, merge with the real world thus creates a shift in fate/events when Nagisa survives childbirth pain, rendering the entire former route into a dream for Okazaki. That was Key’s way of giving us a happy ending… Which wasn’t bad. But at the same time, it wasn’t all that creative. To be honest I really expected things to hit rock bottom in the series after the killed Nagisa at midpoint and then I expected Okazaki to find enlightenment somehow afterwards in his mullish state. I’m glad to see everything wrap up happily in the end despite my slight annoyance at having brushed off and neglected the after story developments of all the other supporting characters save for a glimpse or two in the final roll of the credits. The most beautiful moment is when the true happy ending is revealed with the appearance of the glowing lights that signify happiness or miracles…

The Kyou and Ryou Bonus:

Unlike the extra Tomoyo Arc in the original Clannad series that shipped the Tomos (LOL) I really liked the short story between Kyou and Tomoya if Tomoya hadn’t met Nagisa at the bottom of the hill. It didn’t make any sense to me how Student Body President could date Outcast Delinquent Ne’er-do-well. However when it comes to the unlikely meeting of Kyou trying to keep the two troublemakers disciplined which ends up turning into a friendship, I see where romance may bloom from those circumstances. Kyou’s pretty great in this story. We see more than her outgoing and somewhat violent every day personality to the vulnerabilities that result in that hardass image she presents to people in order to keep her insecurities hidden. Her love for her sister is altruistic and unconditional, to the extent at which she’s willing to give up her happiness for the sake of sibling.

As far as sequels go, after story did a decent-ish job in giving us what we wanted to see, what we didn’t expect to see and what more or less should have happened to the characters. There’s always that slight magical element involved in Key stories such as Air or Kanon. Clannad incorporates it better than the others, in my opinion, simultaneously making it easy to follow and relatable while holding true to the high school anime series devices that we want and expect. I’ll probably have a hard time finding a new slice of life to pass the time since Clannad is such a major one in the genre.

What do you guys think of this? Good or bad? And could Key have written or structured the story differently? Hope you guys liked this long rant and review, be sure to follow me for new stuff almost every day. If you haven’t check out my first review on the original Clannad series, the link is down below. Thanks for reading!